After World War II

After World War II, he returned to the colonies and was a prisoner of war of the Vietminh, during two months in 1945, after the outbreaks of the First Indochina War.[1] He was named the following year general secretary of the interministerial committee for Indochina and then head of staff of the high commissary of the Republic.[1]

In the 1950s, he pursued his career in Africa as a colonial administrator. Messmer began his high-level African service as governor of Mauritania from 1952 to 1954, and then served as governor of Ivory Coast from 1954 to 1956. He came back to Paris in 1956, in the staff of Gaston Defferre, Minister of Overseas Territories who enacted the Deferre Act granting to colonial territories internal autonomy, a first step towards independence.

Governor of Cameroun

Nominated as governor general of Cameroun in 1956, where a civil war had started the preceding year following the outlawing of the independentist Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) in July 1955. Messmer initiated a decolonization process and imported the counter-revolutionary warfare methods theorized in Indochina and implemented during the Algerian War (1954–62).[4] Visiting de Gaulle in Paris, he was implicitly granted his authorization for the new turn implemented to the policies in Cameroon, substituting repression to negotiations with the UPC.[4]

A "Pacification Zone" – the ZOPAC (Zone de pacification du Cameroon) was created on 9 December 1957, englobing 7,000 square km controlled by seven infantry regiments.[4] Furthermore, a civilian-military intelligence apparatus was created, combining colonial and local staff, assisted by a civilian militia.[4]Mao Zedong's people's war was reversed, in an attempt to separate the civilian population from the guerrilla.[4] In this aim, the local population was rounded-up in guarded villages located on the main roads, controlled by the French Army.[4]

Along with the Minister of Research, Gaston Palewski, Messmer was present at the Béryl nuclear test in Algeria, on 1 May 1962, during which an accident occurred. Officials, soldiers and Algerian workers escaped as they could, often without wearing any protection. Palewski died in 1984 of leukemia, which he always has attributed to the Beryl incident, while Messmer always remained close-mouthed on the affair.[5][6]

Due to President Georges Pompidou's illness, he dealt with the everyday administration of the country and adopted a conservative stance opposed to Chaban-Delmas' previous policies. Henceforth, he stopped the liberalization of the ORTF media governmental organization, naming as its CEO Arthur Conte, a personal friend of Pompidou.[8]

In 1974, when Pompidou died, those close to Messmer encouraged him to run for president. He accepted at the condition of Chaban-Delmas, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Edgar Faure's withdrawals. Faure accepted, as well as Giscard on the condition that Chaban-Delmas also withdrew himself. However, Chaban-Delmas, despite the Canard enchaîné 's campaign against him, maintained himself, leading Messmer to withdraw his candidacy. Finally, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a conservative rival of the Gaullists, was elected. He served as prime minister for another few weeks after Pompidou’s death, ending his term after the presidential elections. Jacques Chirac replaced him on 29 May 1974.[10] After the election of Giscard, he never held again ministerial offices, and became one of the historical voices of Gaullism.[3]

Later career

He remained however a member of Parliament for the Moselle department until 1988, and served as President of the Lorraine regional assembly from 1968 to 1992. He was mayor of the town of Sarrebourg from 1971 to 1989. Messmer was also president of the Rally for the Republic (RPR) parliamentary group during the first cohabitation (1986–1988), under Jacques Chirac' government.[1] In 1997 he testified as a witness during the trial of Maurice Papon, charged of crimes against humanity committed under the Vichy regime, and declared: "The time has come when the Frenchmen could stop hating themselves and begin to grant pardon to themselves.".[11] Along with some other former Resistants, he demanded Papon's pardon in 2001.[1]

He died in 2007 aged 91, just four days after fellow Prime Minister Raymond Barre. He was the last surviving major French Politician to have been a member of the Free French forces.

Political career

Governmental functions

Prime Minister: 1972–1974

Minister of State, Minister of Departments and Overseas Territories: 1971–1972

He also became elected as a member of the Académie française (the French language academy) in 1999, replacing a Gaullist comrade, Maurice Schumann.[1] He was also a member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences since 1988, and, since 1976, of the Académie des sciences d'outre-mer (Academy of Sciences of Overseas Territories). He was named perpetual secretary of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1995.[2] He was also chancellor of the Institut de France (1998–2005) before becoming honorary chancellor.[2]